WSJ Debate on Advertiser Liability for Adware
By Eric Goldman Today, the Wall Street Journal published an email debate between me and Ari Schwartz of the Center for Democracy and Technology about advertiser responsibility for adware. Regular blog readers know that this has been a hot button…
CDT Report on Adware Advertising
By Eric Goldman The Center for Democracy and Technology has released “Following the Money: How Advertising Dollars Encourage Nuisance and Harmful Adware and What Can be Done to Reverse the Trend.” The report details the complex web of relationships between…
San Francisco Presentation, March 15 12:30 pm
By Eric Goldman I’m presenting my latest article, A Coasean Analysis of Marketing, at University of San Francisco on March 15. The talk is free and open to the public. Although the title suggests that the talk will be heavy…
Symantec v. Hotbar Lawsuit Settles
By Eric Goldman Symantec Corp. v. Hotbar.com, Inc., Case No. C05-02309 (notice of dismissal Feb. 1, 2006) In June, Symantec sought a declaratory judgment that Symantec could characterize Hotbar’s software as “adware.” This lawsuit has settled. According to ComputerWorld, “the…
NYU Workshop on Spyware March 16-17
By Eric Goldman NYU’s Information Law Institute and Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy are putting on “A Workshop on Spyware,” March 16-17, 2006 at NYU Law School. This looks like an interesting event that is worth checking out. Unfortunately,…
Anti-Spyware Coalition Workshop Recap
By Eric Goldman I attended the Anti-Spyware Coalition Public Workshop last week in Washington DC. This was a well-attended event (my guess is that 300+ people attended), with a good mix of anti-spyware vendors, anti-spyware activists, adware vendors, policy wonks/politicos…
Wasted Time as a Damage–Paglinawan v. Frey
By Eric Goldman Paglinawan v. Frey, No. 2:06-cv-00099-RSM (W.D. Wash. complaint filed Jan. 19, 2006). James Frey publishes the book “A Million Little Pieces.” It’s marketed as a non-fiction book, but some of it is actually fiction. Readers are upset…
Anti-Spyware Coalition Conference February 9
By Eric Goldman The Anti-Spyware Coalition has released the agenda and schedule for its Public Workshop: Defining the Problem, Developing Solutions on February 9 in Washington DC. If you’re interested in adware/spyware policy-making and can easily get to DC, this…
Second Anti-Adware Lawsuit Survives Motion to Dismiss–Kerrins v. Intermix Media
By Eric Goldman Kerrins v. Intermix Media, Inc., No. 2:05-cv-05408-RGK-SS (C.D. Cal. Jan. 10, 2006) Blogging the latest developments in anti-adware/anti-spyware lawsuits has become a full-time job, which is why I’ve fallen behind. I’m now aware of 5 anti-adware class…
The FTC, Adware Advertising and Badges of Shame
By Eric Goldman New FTC Commissioner Jon Leibowitz has embraced one of the favorite causes of the anti-adware grumblers: dry up adware funding by making adware advertisers feel some pain. According to AdAge, he recently said that the FTC might…